a white supremacist gunman came into a church on june 17th during a weekly bible study and killed 9 people. he sat in church and waited for the perfect time to start firing. after stating that he supported the confederate flag and what it stood for several people turned their hate onto the flag. some even went as far to say that, that is why those black men and women are dead today. the people of South Carolina demanded that the flag be taken down and Nikki Hayle, their governor agreed and took it down.
several people don't agree with what is happening. some say that the flag had nothing to do with the shooting and some say it had everything to do with it. i personally don't think that the confederate flag "killed" those men and women but i don't agree with what the confederate flag stood for. the flag needed to come down at some point and people were never brave enough to do it so in a way they found a way to do it at the right time. so its a good thing that it came down but even if the confederate flag wasn't up when the shooting happened, it probably would have still happened.
in history many societies used a scapegoat for things that happened and this flag was the scapegoat in this awful situation. also its very difficult to take a symbol away when people are so used to seeing it all their lives.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/10/us/relief-and-resentment-after-confederate-flag-vote-in-south-carolina.html?_r=0
I agree with your viewpoint that the confederate flag was not the cause of the horrible deaths, but I do believe that the stigma and history and what the flag represents is completely wrong and it should be eliminated from our culture. It is not a symbol of southern pride, it is a banner supporting racism and brutality.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you're statement about how you don't believe the confederate flag necessarily "killed" men and women. Also, you are completely right about the many different views of this situation, but I think that the object itself could've come down either way, shooting or not, because of the brutality associated with it.
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